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Smoking Among Patients With Alcohol or Drug Use Disorders
January 2008

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Research Summary and Comments

Smoking is much more common in people with alcohol or drug use disorders.  But, the specific relationship between smoking and other substance use, as well as the effects of gender on this relationship, is not clear. Therefore, researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 42,565 U.S. adults who had participated in a survey on alcohol and related conditions.
  • Prevalence of daily smoking was 21% among the total sample, 40% among people with a current alcohol use disorder, and 55% among people with a current drug use disorder.
  • Ex-smokers made up about 20% of the total sample, 13% of people with a current alcohol use disorder, and 8% of people with a current drug use disorder.
  • The likelihood of daily smoking, versus never smoking, was highest among women with a current drug use disorder (odds ratio [OR], 6.5), followed by men with a current drug use disorder (OR, 4.6), women with a current alcohol use disorder (OR, 3.5), and men with a current alcohol use disorder (OR, 2.9).
  • The likelihood of occasional smoking, versus never smoking, was also highest among women (e.g., OR, 5.2 for those with a current alcohol use disorder).
Comments by Norma Finkelstein, Ph.D, LICSW:
While the use of tobacco is more common in men than women in the general population, gender differences in smoking among people diagnosed with substance use disorders has not been widely studied.  These findings suggest that the association between substance use disorders and smoking is moderated by gender, and they reinforce the critical importance of addressing tobacco use within substance use disorder treatment. Specific smoking prevention and treatment strategies targeted to women might prove to be more effective than universal approaches.

Reference:
Husky MH, Paliwal P, Mazure CM, et al. Gender differences in association with substance use diagnoses and smoking. J Addict Med. 2007;1(3):161–164.

This summary was adapted from text previously published in Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence.